Microsoft Ignite 2018 – What’s new with SharePoint?

Microsoft’s annual conference, MS Ignite, has, as usual, has given many of us some insight into the world of Microsoft and what we can expect in the coming months. Here’s a small breakdown of that you need to know – as these features get released, we’ll be writing more blog posts about how they work and how they can benefit you and your organisation.

Content collaboration

Many of our clients love the fact that using Office 365, you can co-author documents simultaneously with other users. Not only does this avoid inevitable and time consuming email tennis, but it prevents miscommunication and enhances productivity. Now, Microsoft have expanded on this feature. You’ll soon be able to add comments with @mentions to all file types in OneDrive including photos, CAD drawings, PDFs, and more.

If users don’t already have permission to the document, you’ll be able to share it automatically. The recipient will get an email notification with a link to the file so they can join in. And with Office documents, collaborators can work together in real-time with enhanced co-authoring across mobile, web, and desktop versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, possible only with Office 365 and only with your files in our cloud.

There are new ways to new ways to create articles quicker, including page designs, new web parts, and news links that enable you to share any content, including external articles, as news. All of these things allow you to enhance employee engagement right across your organisation.

Microsoft have also showed new ways to deliver news using audience targeting, and to publish important articles with visual tags. As we know, tags help users find content quicker and manage their documents better.

Source: Microsoft

It’s all about video

Video is fast becoming the preferred medium to create engaging news, training and more for employees. Microsoft Stream, the adaptive video service within Office 365, powers video experiences on SharePoint sites and live and on-demand events in Stream, Yammer and Microsoft Teams.

The new Microsoft Stream mobile app lets you discover and engage with video across the organisation, featuring offline viewing so you can catch up with video even in low- or no-bandwidth environments.Read more here about how Microsoft Stream lets you stream live events.

Intranets

You can organise your intranet with hub sites, as Microsoft continue to make improvements with events roll-up and hub join approvals. Microsoft are also increasing the number of hub sites in a tenant to 100, which enables you to manage hub sites more effectively in the new SharePoint Admin Center.

These upcoming features, along with the current features Microsoft have released throughout 2018, will allow you to change classic publishing sites and portals. You’ll be able to create compelling new digital employee experiences in SharePoint.

With Microsoft Teams undergoing huge development, it’s worth knowing that you’ll be able to add Teams apps to SharePoint sites, bringing a plethora of apps to your intranet.

Microsoft Teams is happening

It’s been common knowledge for some time that Teams is replacing Skype for Business. Now, Microsoft have gone all out with their development of Microsoft Teams.

Soon you’ll see a new files experience in Microsoft Teams that will exhibit the full capabilities of SharePoint document libraries. You’ll have the ability to create custom views, pin files to the top, add and format custom columns, and gain insights into file activities. This lets you sync files from Microsoft Teams to your PC or Mac.

Source: Microsoft

Among many other things, Microsoft are making it possible for you to connect any SharePoint team site to Teams. You can already connect a site to an Office 365 group. Now, with one more click from your site, you’ll be able to create a team.

Source: Microsoft

We’ve really only just touched the iceberg with Microsoft’s offerings from MS Ignite thiis year. Watch this space to find out more as these collaborative features come to light in the coming months!

We of course already know about the highly-anticipated release of SharePoint 2019. However there were other interesting bits of info that users of SharePoint will be looking forward to checking out. One major update was the use of AI in SharePoint. Even more ability to have automation in the platform? Looks that way!

Microsoft’s annual conference, MS Ignite, has, as usual, has given many of us some insight into the world of Microsoft and what we can expect in the coming months. Here’s a small breakdown of that you need to know – as these features get released, we’ll be writing more blog posts about how they work […]